Raymond Biswanger Slide Collection

Edgar Allan Poe: 1838
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Poverty, restlessness and a yearning for change prompted Edgar Allan Poe to move his family again, this time to a tiny, narrow cottage on North Seventh Street in the Spring Garden District, a working class neighborhood in Philadelphia. The house was poorly structured and furnished, but had a small, luxuriant garden.

While living there, Poe won a $100 prize for “The Gold-Bug” in a contest held by the Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper. Around the same time, a local printer brought out a pamphlet, The Prose Romances of Edgar Allan Poe, which contained “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and “The Man that was Used Up.”

Poe also started his career as a lecturer while living at North Seventh Street. His inaugural talk was titled “Poetry of America.”